So my kid's school district has been out for a bit now, and just announced May 5th as the first opportunity to maybe go back...that can be extended. The first week we got nothing, but on Monday we received the Homework packets, aaaaaaaand they are nothing but a problem.
So I am in the US, and am in #socalhive. There has been a big push in the US the last couple of years for this common core nonsense. It is basically dumbing math down super crazy, with a side effect of having simple problems require multiple complex equations to solve.
My gripe came around when I found out my 3rd grade son's teacher has not been teaching much common core math. The problem is the homework packets the school gave out are for the entire county, and from the Superintendent of all schools for the county...Apparently most of the schools, or at least the one who developed the packet, rely heavily on common core.
SOOOOOOOOOOOOO now my son is super confused. He solves the problems in seconds, because they are basic math problems after all. But they are requiring him to show his work using the common core methods that he does not know. He is picking them up quick, and keeps commenting, "This is Stupid, I already solved it faster and easier".
But then he runs into questions like:
How do you know when you need to do this common core strategy?
Why is this common core strategy the best way to solve the problem?
etc, etc...
So here I am, looking at my son struggling to do math that he solves, but takes him WAAAY longer because a simple addion problem now turns into multiple addition and subtraction problems, and am being asked for help to answer those questions...The response I want to give is it doesnt, I want to tell him to solve it properly, move on and I will deal with the teacher. But my wife does not want to rock the boat on it. It is really dumb.
My kindergartner is solid and loves her homework. My kid in Junior High is struggling simply because the homework is beyond where her school was at academically...So now I am having to relearn algebra that I have litterally not had to use in 2 decades to teach her new concepts. Ugh.
I wish they would get their shit together and submit locally developed homework. I did message the superentindent but I am yet to get a response. Idiots.
